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Read Ebook: Christmas Its Origin Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse by Schauffler Robert Haven Editor
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Ebook has 499 lines and 74037 words, and 10 pages
"Glory to God!" The lofty strain The realm of ether fills: How sweeps the song of solemn joy O'er Judah's sacred hills! "Glory to God!" The sounding skies Loud with their anthems ring; "Peace on the earth; good-will to men, From heaven's eternal King!"
Light on thy hills, Jerusalem! The Saviour now is born: More bright on Bethlehem's joyous plains Breaks the first Christmas morn; And brighter on Moriah's brow, Crowned with her temple-spires, Which first proclaim the new-born light, Clothed with its Orient fires.
This day shall Christian lips be mute, And Christian hearts be cold? Oh, catch the anthem that from heaven O'er Judah's mountains rolled! When nightly burst from seraph-harps The high and solemn lay,-- "Glory to God! on earth be peace; Salvation comes to-day!"
A HYMN ON THE NATIVITY OF MY SAVIOUR
BEN JONSON
I sing the birth was born to-night The author both of life and light; The angels so did sound it. And like the ravished shepherds said, Who saw the light, and were afraid, Yet searched, and true they found it.
The Son of God, th' eternal king, That did us all salvation bring, And freed the soul from danger; He whom the whole world could not take, The Word, which heaven and earth did make, Was now laid in a manger.
The Father's wisdom willed it so, The Son's obedience knew no No, Both wills were in one stature; And as that wisdom had decreed, The Word was now made flesh indeed, And took on him our nature.
What comfort by him do we win, Who made himself the price of sin, To make us heirs of glory! To see this babe all innocence; A martyr born in our defence: Can man forget the story?
THE SHEPHERD'S SONG
EDMUND BOLTON
Sweet music, sweeter far Than any song is sweet: Sweet music, heavenly rare, Mine ears, O peers, doth greet. You gentle flocks, whose fleeces pearled with dew, Resemble heaven, whom golden drops make bright, Listen, O listen, now, O not to you Our pipes make sport to shorten weary night: But voices most divine Make blissful harmony: Voices that seem to shine, For what else clears the sky? Tunes can we hear, but not the singers see, The tunes divine, and so the singers be.
Lo, how the firmament Within an azure fold The flock of stars hath pent, That we might them behold, Yet from their beams proceedeth not this light, Nor can their crystals such reflection give. What then doth make the element so bright? The heavens are come down upon earth to live But hearken to the song, Glory to glory's King, And peace all men among, These quiristers do sing. Angels they are, as also He Whom in our fear we do admire to see.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
AUBREY DE VERE
They leave the land of gems and gold, The shining portals of the East; For Him, the woman's Seed foretold, They leave the revel and the feast.
To earth their sceptres they have cast, And crowns by kings ancestral worn; They track the lonely Syrian waste; They kneel before the Babe new born.
O happy eyes that saw Him first; O happy lips that kissed His feet: Earth slakes at last her ancient thirst; With Eden's joy her pulses beat.
True kings are those who thus forsake Their kingdoms for the Eternal King; Serpent, her foot is on thy neck; Herod, thou writhest, but canst not sting.
He, He is King, and He alone Who lifts that infant hand to bless; Who makes His mother's knee His throne, Yet rules the starry wilderness.
A CHRISTMAS HYMN
ANON
Written in the Chapel of the Manger, in the Convent Church of Bethlehem, Palestine:
In the fields where, long ago, Dropping tears, amid the leaves, Ruth's young feet went to and fro, Binding up the scattered sheaves, In the field that heard the voice Of Judea's shepherd King, Still the gleaners may rejoice, Still the reapers shout and sing.
For each mount and vale and plain Felt the touch of holier feet. Then the gleaners of the grain Heard, in voices full and sweet, "Peace on earth, good will to men," Ring from angel lips afar, While, o'er every glade and glen, Broke the light of Bethlehem's star.
Star of hope to souls in night, Star of peace above our strife, Guiding, where the gates of death Ope to fields of endless life. Wanderer from the nightly throng Which the eastern heavens gem; Guided, by an angel's song, To the Babe of Bethlehem.
Not Judea's hills alone Have earth's weary gleaners trod, Not to heirs of David's throne Is it given to "reign with God." But where'er on His green earth Heavenly faith and longing are, Heavenly hope and life have birth, 'Neath the smile of Bethlehem's star.
And that inner temple fair May be holier ground than this, Hallowed by the pilgrim's prayer, Warmed by many a pilgrim's kiss. In its shadow still and dim, Where our holiest longings are, Rings forever Bethlehem's hymn, Shines forever Bethlehem's star.
CHRISTMAS DAY
CHARLES WESLEY
Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled.
Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph of the skies, With the angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem!
Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness! Light and life to all he brings, Risen with healing in his wings.
Mild, he lays his glory by; Born, that man no more may die, Born to raise the sons of earth, Born to give them second birth.
CHRISTMAS
ANON
Once in Royal David's city Stood a lowly cattle shed, Where a mother laid her baby In a manger for His bed. Mary was that mother mild, Jesus Christ that little child.
He came down to earth from Heaven, Who is God and Lord of all. And his shelter was a stable, And his cradle was a stall. With the poor and mean and lowly, Lived on earth our Saviour Holy.
And our eyes at last shall see Him Through His own redeeming love, For that child so dear and gentle Is our Lord in Heaven above; And He leads His children on To the place where He is gone.
Not in that poor, lowly stable, With the oxen standing by, We shall see Him; but in Heaven, Set at God's right hand on high, When, like stars, His children crowned All in white, shall wait around.
CHRISTMAS
NAHUM TATE
While shepherds watch'd their flocks by night, All seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down, And glory shone around.
"Fear not," said he ; "Glad tidings of great joy I bring To you and all mankind.
"To you, in David's town, this day Is born of David's line The Saviour who is Christ the Lord; And this shall be the sign:
"The heavenly Babe you there shall find To human view display'd, All meanly wrapt in swathing bands, And in a manger laid."
Thus spake the Seraph; and forthwith Appear'd a shining throng Of angels, praising God, and thus Address'd their joyful song:
"All glory be to God on high, And to the earth be peace; Good-will henceforth from heaven to men Begin, and never cease!"
"WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS BY NIGHT"
MARGARET DELAND
Like small curled feathers, white and soft, The little clouds went by, Across the moon, and past the stars, And down the western sky: In upland pastures, where the grass With frosted dew was white, Like snowy clouds the young sheep lay, That first, best Christmas night.
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